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------We love it and hope to never fall back into society's arms------
Forest Breath, I have read your posts and how you got kicked off the land you built your house on because you felt having lawyers draw up legal papers were unnecessary.
We could all learn a lot if you also posted--------What Not to do-------in the self sufficent living thread.
my preference would be in the south as the winters are less brutal. There are some great wind generators on the market now and solar power.. those can provide basic power. wells are only as good as the water they tap. hoop system septic systems can leave your waste water cleaner than the local plant. with out sewer, water or power you will be free from many of the community expenses. property tax would be a recurring issue.
what would the regulations be like to install such systems?
Just thought of another excellent resource, Canadian Les Stroud's own video of choosing a location off the grid, remodeling the barn, building other structures, and all the many mechanical setups needed to survive off the grid. This an an hour-long video packed with information and surprises, including how much one needs the assistance of other people. StumbleVideo
I strongly suggest you do your research first, as much as you possibly can. CityData gives good state infornation on taxes and so forth, and for land I looked for two years on Moderator cut: link removed, linking to competitor sites is not allowed. You can type in your price range and what you are looking for - size, even state and region, and come up with literally hundreds of alternatives. Most have multiple pictures, and the folks that are handling the properties often have links to their webpages so you can look around their areas at what is for sale. Then I came to CityData and asked questions of the people in those states' forums. I found out where to move to - and where NOT to. ND was on my list until I found out that they are experiencing an "oil boom" and mineral rights there are sold seperately from the properties. SD has no income tax but there are hidden costs there as well. Mountain property is lovely but if it is rocky you can forget a productive garden unless you want to put a lot of effort into tilling. Flat property near a river or lake may be incrementally or seasonally flooding and you may not be able to build on it due to that or local ordinances.
Three years ago I started looking for "the perfect place". We could not go completely off grid - had to have access to doctors, pharmacies, etc, and DH even though wonderfully mechanically and electrically inclined is not as "pert" as he used to be. My dau and I flew out to the 'flyover' states last March to look at 6 properties. We found this one - 40 acres, 100 year-old house, barns, fully fenced and cross-fenced, corrals, a shop and a garage - and bought it. They say NE has high property taxes, but everything is relative - I pay $200 more a year here than I did in SC for 1/3 of an acre and a cheap FmHA house built in the 70's. We are on the northernmost edge of a tiny town (pop 177) and have 14 acres in town, the rest in the county. There are - no ordinances. None. We can put up solar or wind. We have a well in back that taps off of the same aquifer as the town uses that used to have a windmill on it to pump up the water; we will regenerate it prior to getting our cattle. We have "city water" pumped straight from the aquifer into a storage tank/tower and thence to our homes. No filtration, no additives; just pure sweet water.
Everyone carries and there is no crime. The kids all wear belts and there are no on-campus day care centers for the teenagers' children. Everyone works; mostly ranching, others at supplemental jobs. Because the people have paid for their parks and recreation, there is no vandalism, no graffiti. No Wal Mart and no interstate within 150 miles. The food is locally grown and the beef - grass-fed - is fork-tender. The winters are long (which we like, BTW) and the growing season short but productive. Heat is propane and woodburning stoves.
A lot of the problems I see with folks who go off-grid is that they simply do not realize how much WORK it takes to do so. I lived off-grid for a while in NM, and handwashing/drying clothes, butchering and then cooking your meat over a woodstove, is not a once-in-a-while vacation treat but an ongoing plan of how and when to do what. Your life will be dependent on the weather; not just the seasons but the sudden late May snows and the torrential weeklong rains that come just as you are trying to put the roof up or the basement in. There are propane refrigerators but then you still are buying propane - how will you refrigerate the milk your cows produce, your butter, your eggs, in the summertime? Composting toilets are a great idea - which one will suit your needs and which one will work in your climate and with your availability? Outhouses are a pain in the a** to keep limed and sweetsmelling and have to be dug every couple of years even with lime - and many places have outlawed them. Gardening is daily backbreaking work, and an infestation of bugs can decimate next winter's food plans. What zone are you in? What will grow there and what won't? If your pumpkin seeds read - "180 days til harvest" and you only have 3 months of warm weather, will you get pumpkins?
Research, research, not just the laws of the state and county of your intended place, but also what you are able - and WILLING - to do, not just for a few months but for a lifetime. I have friends who do it to differing degrees. But all too often, people with big ideas wind up sneezing and shivering next to an empty woodburing stove while their sod hut roof leaks, all of their carefully dried and canned produce gone, bullet and arrow-less, wondering what in the hell they were thinking. Plan, plan, PLAN - and then plan to do without a lot more.
SC Granny is 100% correct! Most people have no idea what it takes to live a self sufficeint life style!
Growing and raiseing all your own food, NEVER going to the store for a thing. Oh we'll farm with horses you say? Bull !Try plowing even 1 acre with a horse! it will KICK YOUR Hindend! Try cutting enough wood to get you through winter with an AX and SAW. If it ever comes to that in this country alot of people are gonna die real fast!!!!!!!!!!
Everyone carries and there is no crime. The kids all wear belts and there are no on-campus day care centers for the teenagers' children. Everyone works; mostly ranching, others at supplemental jobs. Because the people have paid for their parks and recreation, there is no vandalism, no graffiti. No Wal Mart and no interstate within 150 miles. The food is locally grown and the beef - grass-fed - is fork-tender. The winters are long (which we like, BTW) and the growing season short but productive. Heat is propane and woodburning stoves.
WHAT IS THIS NONSENSE??? Dontcha' know, guns cause crime??? You must be plagued with murder and mayhem with all them thar guns! Next thing ya know, you're gonna tell us that parental involvment is good for teenagers.
I'm a young retiree (39), with two young boys. We decided a few years ago that we wanted to live as self sufficiently as possible. We searched all over the country, and settled on a small town in WV. Land was affordable, and property taxes insanely low. No regulations or ordinances. Air and water are the cleanest in the country according to sperlings best places. So many of our family and friends think we're nuts. My wife and I both enjoyed well paying jobs, but we hated the "rat race". There is nothing more satisfying than that exhausted feeling at the end of a day's work on the farm. Every morning I wake up, I feel the excitment of freedom. Certainly a change in lifestyle, but worth every callous and ache!
+1, nothing like the lessons of experience to tell it like it is.
Quote:
Originally Posted by my54ford
Oh we'll farm with horses you say? Bull !Try plowing even 1 acre with a horse! it will KICK YOUR Hindend!
I watched an Amish farmer plowing a field with a team of big workhorses many years ago. It was incredible. This is an almost lost skill in the US or most other places in the world. This guy that I watched was in his 40s, and probably had learned how to run a plow with a team of horses at a young age. He was a pro, but even so you could tell how difficult it was and how dangerous or futile it would be for the rest of us that are so surrounded by our automated and mechanical world.
I am new tonight to this forum. I was lost looking for ways I can have a well in my basement the old fashioned way. With a non-electric pump and I guess a bucket for that possible day that all electric is history and no longer able to pump water into my house.
Additionally, you never know when you might have to stay indoors for a long period of time and you have to have a well that runs without electric to see you through.
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You must be plagued with murder and mayhem with all them thar guns! Next thing ya know, you're gonna tell us that parental involvment is good for teenagers. 
